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CHAPTER ONE IT'S A HALLOWEEN PARTY
Abigail Foster is set for life━━okay, she acknowledges that maybe she's a bit of a hard-ass, and maybe she only has one friend, and maybe she hasn't had her first kiss, and she may have a major disadvantage simply because of the color of her skin and the fact that she is a woman, but none that really matters in the adult world (well, besides the whole racist, misogynistic, and not to mention homophobic nature of the world, which Abby is determined to fix). But, one problem at a time, and right now, Abby is focused on the near future, college. And really, it's not just about college, it's about getting out of the dreary town of Hawkins. She wants to be the one who makes it out, she wants to find success out in the real world. Abby wants to see the outside world, she wants to take pictures of landmarks, she wants to document her journies around the world, she wants to see the sunny beaches of California, she wants to drink coffee in a New York cafe, but for now, daydreaming will have to suffice.
For as long as anybody can remember, Abby Foster has been fueled by ambition. As a child, she had never been content with staying on the ground, she always had to be moving higher and higher. She climbed to the highest branches of the trees, scurried onto the rooftops late at night, climbed every fire escape in a desperate attempt to reach the stars, always reaching and grasping to pull herself up to the next level, and all the while dreaming of her future. By the time she had started middle school, she had proudly proclaimed that she would be the one to pay to attend college.
She had started with smaller jobs━━mowing her neighbor's lawns during the warm springs and sweltering summers, shoveling the deep, cold snow during the harsh days of winter while other kids played and sipped steaming mugs of hot chocolate, and raking the red and yellow leaves of fall. Finally, when she was old enough, managed to get her first job at the severely understaffed Palace Arcade (definitely not her first choice in a job, settling arguments and serving greasy pizza to sweaty teenage boys was definitely now how she would've chosen to spend her afternoons, but Keith was good company). Come junior year, and Abby continued to overachieve, having managed to juggle yard work, her job at the arcade, schoolwork, and now babysitting.
Her babysitting gig had been relatively new, but she had managed to keep it steady for almost a year, picking up jobs whenever she was free of studying. From Erica Sinclair, who had declared with a loud obnoxious whine that she didn't need a babysitter (but had soon warmed up to Abby), to sweet little Holly Wheeler, who insisted that they have tea parties every time that Abby watched over her, the job had been quite an adventure, to say the least.
